The Crowd: Organizer provides best of the best for scholarship fundraiser

Congress may find it impossible to agree on funding priorities, but 200 men in blue blazers and white slacks recently joined forces in Newport Beach to raise $60,000 benefiting the annual Balboa Bay Club & Resort's 1221 Club Scholarship Fund.

The 17th annual Great Gentlemen's Smoker & Lobster Clambake, presided over by international "cigar goodwill ambassador" and hotelier Henry Schielein, was in fact the most successful event in recent years.

"The guests bid generously on the auction," said Schielein, who assembled a roster of dining, travel, art and fine jewelry offerings — all of which raised funds that benefited the student scholarship fund.

Also generously sponsoring the evening were Mardo Fine Jewelry, Newport Beach; artist Michael Bryan; and other fine restaurants and hotels, including the Capital Grille, Five Crowns, Ruby's, the Beachcomber, the Ritz, Piero's, Las Vegas, and many more. The list of donors reads like a "Who's Who" of both local and international travel and dining.

In grand old-world tradition, the men's club evening began at dusk with a cocktail reception on the bayfront lawn at the Balboa Bay Club. Butler-passed hors d'oeuvres included fine beef tartar crustini, smoked salmon with caviar and Medjool dates filled with aged Stilton cheese. One of the hottest new European-imported vodkas on the American scene, YES offered a flowing martini bar. Champagne came from Nicolas Feuillatte, New York.

The evening moved into high gear as comedic emcee Peter Buffa, a former mayor of Costa Mesa, and John Wortmann, board of governors chairman for the BBC, joined forces in a routine interspersed with a full-throttle auction pitch that helped sell the massive roster of goods.

Gorgeous gals moved between the tables, offering fine cigars from a collection that encompassed everything under the sun from Argyle Madura to Hoyo Excalibur No. 1, Macanudo Duke of York, Olivia Serie O, San Cristobal and Urbano, to name a few.

The cigar girls joined the bartenders pouring the best libations of rum and tequila — Patrón XO Cafe, Montecristo 12 Year Old Rum, and Don Julio 1942 Tequila Añejo. Schielein demanded, and got, only the best of the best of everything for his crowd paying $275 per person for the dinner event, in addition to donations made at auction.

The BBC's award-winning culinary team, led by Executive Chef Josef Lagader, prepared and served an impressive dinner under the stars. It began with a crab and avocado cocktail followed by an iceberg wedge on heirloom tomato carpaccio. The entrée of filet mignon, steamed Maine lobster and saffron clam chowder was a rave.